Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford, A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford, A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See by A. Hugh Fisher

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license

Title: Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford, A Description

Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See

Author: A. Hugh Fisher

Release Date: October 7, 2006 [Ebook #19487]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BELL'S CATHEDRALS: THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF HEREFORD, A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL SEE***

HEREFORD FROM THE WYE.

Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo.

The Cathedral Church Of Hereford

A Description Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See

By A. Hugh Fisher

London

George Bell and Sons

1898

[pg iv]

GENERAL PREFACE.

This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors to the great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illustrated guide-books at a popular price. The aim of each writer has been to produce a work compiled with sufficient knowledge and scholarship to be of value to the student of Archæology and History, and yet not too technical in language for the use of an ordinary visitor or tourist.

To specify all the authorities which have been made use of in each case would be difficult and tedious in this place. But amongst the general sources of information which have been almost invariably found useful are:—(1) the great county histories, the value of which, especially in questions of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; (2) the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to time in the Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archæological Societies; (3) the important documents made accessible in the series issued by the Master of the Rolls; (4) the well-known works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals; and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to the Cathedrals, originated by the late Mr. John Murray; to which the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail, especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.

GLEESON WHITE.

EDWARD F. STRANGE.

Editors of the Series.

[pg v]

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

In addition to the well-known books mentioned in the General Preface, the Monastic Chronicles and many other works named in the text, some dealing especially with Hereford have been of valuable assistance to me in preparing this little book. Amongst these are the various careful studies of the Rev. Francis Havergal, Dean Merewether's exhaustive Statement of the Condition and Circumstances of the Cathedral Church of Hereford in the Year 1841, and The Diocese of Hereford, by the Rev. H.W. Phillott.

My best thanks are also due to the Photochrom Company for their excellent photographs.

A. HUGH FISHER.

Contents

GENERAL PREFACE.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

CHAPTER I. - THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.

CHAPTER II. - THE CATHEDRAL - EXTERIOR.

CHAPTER III. - THE INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.

CHAPTER IV. - HISTORY OF THE SEE.

[pg xi]

Illustrations

HEREFORD FROM THE WYE.

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

THE AUDLEY CHAPEL.

THE WEST FRONT (FROM AN OLD PRINT).

THE NAVE AFTER THE FALL OF THE WEST END.

THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

BISHOP BOOTH'S PORCH AND NORTH TRANSEPT.

GENERAL VIEW, FROM THE WEST.

EXTERIOR OF THE LADY CHAPEL. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

THE CLOISTERS, WITH THE LADIES' ARBOUR.

THE NORTH PORCH.

THE NAVE.

THE CHOIR SCREEN.

SECTION THROUGH TOWER AND TRANSEPTS.

NORTH ARCH OF CENTRAL TOWER, SHOWING MASONRY ERECTED ABOUT 1320.

THE NORTH TRANSEPT.

THE CANTILUPE SHRINE.

EAST WALL OF THE SOUTH TRANSEPT.

THE LADY CHAPEL.

SECTION THROUGH LADY CHAPEL AND CRYPT.

ARCH DISCOVERED AT ENTRANCE OF LADY CHAPEL.

SEAL OF JOHANNA DE BOHUN.

THE CRYPT.

VIEW BEHIND THE ALTAR, LOOKING NORTH. AFTER A DRAWING BY W. H. BARTLETT, 1830.

COMPARTMENT OF CHOIR, EXTERIOR, NORTH SIDE.

COMPARTMENT OF CHOIR, INTERIOR, NORTH SIDE.

EAST END OF THE CHOIR IN 1841.

EARLY ENGLISH WINDOW MOULDING.

THE REREDOS.

ANCIENT RELIQUARY IN THE CATHEDRAL.

MONUMENTAL CROCKET.

EARLY ENGLISH BASEMENT MOULDING.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

TOMB OF BISHOP THOS. CHARLETON.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

A GARGOYLE IN THE CLOISTERS. DRAWN BY A. HUGH FISHER.

BYE STREET GATE. FROM AN OLD PRINT.

PLAN OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.

[pg 002]

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo.

[pg 003]

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL

CHAPTER I. - THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING.

The early history of Hereford, like that of the majority of cathedral churches, is veiled in the obscurity of doubtful speculation and shadowy tradition. Although the see had existed from the sixth century, it is not till much later that we have any information concerning the cathedral itself.

From 755 to 794 there reigned in Mercia one of the most powerful and important rulers of those times,—King Offa. He was a contemporary of Charles the Great, and more than once these two sovereigns exchanged gifts and letters. Under Offa Mercia became the first power in Britain, and in addition to much fighting with the West Saxons and the Kentish men he wrested a large piece of the country lying west of the Severn from the Welsh, took the chief town of the district which was afterwards called Shrewsbury, and like another Severus made a great dyke from the mouth of the Wye to that of the Dee which became henceforth the boundary between Wales and England, a position it has held with few changes to the present day. In church history Offa is of no less importance than in secular, for as the most powerful King in England he seems to have determined that ecclesiastical affairs in this country should be more under his control, or at least supervision, than they could possibly be with the Mercian church subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 786, therefore, he persuaded the Pope to create the Archbishopric of Lichfield.[pg 004] Although Canterbury regained its supremacy upon Offa's death when Lichfield was shorn by a new Pope of its recently acquired honours, the position gained for the latter see by Offa, though temporary in itself, must have had lasting and important influence. Offa is generally held responsible for the murder, about 793, of Æthelberht, King of the East Angles, who had been promised his daughter, Æthelthryth, in marriage.

Had Æthelberht been gifted with a knowledge of future events (which would not have been a more wonderful attribute than many of the virtues which were ascribed afterwards to his dead body), he could hardly have desired a more glorious fate. His murder gained for him martyrdom with its immortal glory, and he could scarce have met his death under happier auspices. Visiting a king's residence to fetch his bride he died by the order of a man whose memory is sullied by no other stain, a man renowned in war, a maker of laws for the good of his people, and eminent in an ignorant age as one who encouraged learning.

Legend and tradition have so obscured this event that beyond the bare fact of the murder nothing can be positively asserted, and the brief statement of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 792. This year Offa, King of the Mercians, commanded the head of King Æthelberht to be struck off, contains all that we may be certain of.

One writer speaks of a hired assassin, and others lay the crime at the door of Cynethryth, Offa's Queen, who is said to have insinuated that the marriage was only sought as a pretext to occupy the Mercian throne. Finding her lord's courage not equal to the occasion, she herself arranged the end of Æthelberht. There is talk of a pit dug in his sleeping-chamber and a chair arranged thereover, which, with an appearance of luxurious comfort, lured him to his fate. The body was, according to one writer, privately buried on the bank of the river Lugg, near Hereford.

On the night of his burial, says the Monkish Annalist, a column of light, brighter than the sun, arose towards heaven; and three nights afterwards the figure (or ghost) of King Æthelberht appeared to Brithfrid, a nobleman, and commanded him to convey the body to a place called Stratus Waye, and to inter it near the monastery there. Guided by another column of light, Brithfrid, having placed the body and the[pg 005] head on a carriage, proceeded on his journey. The head fell from the vehicle, but having been discovered by a blind man, to whom it miraculously communicated sight, was restored by him to the careless driver. Arrived at his place of destination, then called Fernlega or Saltus Silicis, and which has since been termed Hereford, he there interred the body. Whatever the motive for the crime, there is ample evidence of Offa's subsequent remorse. In atonement he built monasteries and churches, and is even said by some to have gone on a pilgrimage to Rome, though this rests on slight evidence.

The miracles worked at the tomb of the murdered King were, according to Asser, so numerous and incredible that Offa, who had appropriated Æthelberht's kingdom, was induced to send two bishops to Hereford to ascertain the truth of them, and it is generally agreed that about A.D. 825 Milfrid, who was Viceroy to the Mercian King Egbert after the death of Offa and of his son Egfrid, expended a large sum of money in building "Ecclesiam egregiam, lapidea structura" at Hereford, which he consecrated to the martyred monarch, and endowed with lands and enriched with ornaments.

Although one of the old chroniclers calls it a church of stone, it is quite uncertain what were the materials, size, or architectural character of this edifice. It seems, however, that by 1012, when Bishop Athelstan was promoted to the see, it had fallen into sheer ruin, or,